„Can we, the Czech Catholics, be Antisemites?“ Antisemitism at the Dawn of the Czech Christian-Social Movement

Author(s): Michal Frankl / Language(s): English Issue: 1/1997

The aim of the present article is to provide first insights into the history of antisemitism in the Czech Christian Social movement before 1900. Historians have so far paid very little attention to Christian Socialism; for lack of relevant literature, I will briefly describe the inception of this movement and the first years of its activity. It is however, not my intention to give a detailed analysis of the history and the highs and lows of the Czech Christian Social movement. I shall concentrate on the philosophical, social, and political roots of its antisemitism.

Der Antisemitismus in den nationalen Bewegungen im Teschner Gebiet

Author(s): Václav Štěpánek / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1997

This article examines the phenomenon of antisemitism in the national movements in the Teschen region, a borderland area between the Czech Republic and Poland, in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. It traces the origins and development of antisemitic ideology in Germany and Russia, and how it influenced the Polish and Czech nationalists in their struggle for the national character of the region. It also analyzes the various forms and manifestations of antisemitism in the local press, politics, and society, and how the Jews responded to the attacks and accusations. The article argues that antisemitism was a significant factor in the deterioration of the interethnic relations and the rise of nationalism in the Teschen region.

Zeitgenössische Reaktionen auf die josephinische Toleranz der Juden in Böhmen und Mähren. Prager und Wiener Diskussion über die Toleranz der Juden zwischen 1781 und 1782

Author(s): Jiří Kuděla / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1996

This study examines the contemporary reactions to the Josephine tolerance of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia, focusing on the Prague and Vienna discussion between 1781 and 1782. The author collects and paraphrases most of the known occasional prints that appeared on this topic, and analyzes their arguments and perspectives. The study also provides some historical background on the situation of the Jews in the Habsburg monarchy, especially after the annexation of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the influence of the enlightened ideas on the Jewish emancipation.

Systematic Collection of Memories Organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague-IV

Author(s): Anna Hyndráková,Anna Lorencová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/1996

The document contains a collection of memoirs from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague and provides brief annotations of the recorded memoirs, numbered from 301 to 400, with information such as the names, dates, places, and experiences of the individuals. The memoirs cover various aspects of the Holocaust, such as deportation, ghetto life, concentration camps, resistance, hiding, liberation, and post-war adaptation. The document is a valuable source of historical and personal testimonies of the Jewish fate during the Nazi occupation.

On the Topography and Demography of the Prague Jewish Town Prior to the the Pogrom of 1389

Author(s): Alexandr Putík / Language(s): English Issue: 1/1995

The aim of this study is, in first place, the reconstruction of the size of the Prague Jewish Town (Jewish Quarter of the Old Town of Prague) from the fifties to the eighties of the 14th century. Determining the size and number of houses in the Ghetto forms the basis for a more realistic estimate of the number of Jewish inhabitants in the period prior to the pogrom of 1389. To the extent needed to attain the main aim, this study touches on questions about the beginning of the Jewish Quarter.

Vorgeschichte der Regierungsverordnung über die Rechtsstellung der Juden im öffentlichen Leben

Author(s): Miroslav Kárný / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1995

This article examines the history of the government regulation on the legal status of Jews in public life, which was approved by the Protectorate government on July 4, 1939, but published only nine months later, on April 24, 1940. The author traces the origins of this regulation to Hitler's directives on the German occupation policy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which were presented by State Secretary Wilhelm Stuckart on March 25, 1939. The author analyzes the differences between the definition of Jewishness proposed by the Protectorate government and the one imposed by the Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath on June 21, 1939, based on the Nuremberg laws. The author also explores the reasons for the delay in the publication of the regulation and the interventions of various German authorities, such as the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the Office of the Reich Protector, and the Security Police, in the drafting process. The author concludes that the regulation was a result of the conflicting interests and dynamics of the German and Czech actors involved in the Nazi occupation policy.

Die Wannsee-Konferenz nach einem halben Jahrhundert

Author(s): Miroslav Kárný / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1992

The article discusses the historical significance and context of the Wannsee Conference, which was held on January 20, 1942 in Berlin to coordinate the implementation of the "Final Solution" of the Jewish question in Nazi-occupied Europe. The author argues that the conference was not the starting point of the genocide of European Jews, but rather a bureaucratic meeting to inform and involve various state agencies in the ongoing mass murder that had already begun in the Soviet Union and Poland. The author also analyzes the motivations and roles of different Nazi leaders, such as Hitler, Göring, Himmler, and Heydrich, in planning and executing the "Final Solution", as well as the euphemistic terminology and deceptive methods they used to conceal their criminal intentions.

Notes Bibliographiques

Author(s): Anita Franková,Jiří Kuděla,David Chaloupka / Language(s): English,German Issue: 1/1992

Review of: Rainer Erb und Werner Bergmann, Die Nachtseite der Judenemanzipation. Der Widerstand gegen die Integration der Juden in Deutschland 1780 - 1860. Antisemitismus und jüdische Geschichte, Band 1, Metropol Verlag, Berlin 1989, 303 Seiten Aschkenas, Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur den Juden. Nr. 1, Möhlau Verlag, Wien - Köln, 1991 Peter Dittmar, Die Darstellung der Juden in der populären Kunst zur Zeit der Emanzipation. K. G. Saur, München 1992, 479 Seiten, 300 Abbildungen Svět bez lidských dimenzí (Eine Welt ohne menschliche Dimensionen). Praha, Statní židovské muzeum, 1991

Communications

Author(s): Vladimir Sadek / Language(s): French Issue: 2/1968

1. La nouvelle exposition du Musée juif d’Etat „Millenium judaicum bohemicum“ (Libretiste: Doc. dr. Vladimir Sadek, Architecte: arch. Bohumil Ulrich, Graphique: Jaroslav Béza) 2. Conférences d’automne 1967 du Musée juif d’Etat

März 1939 — Schicksalsgrenzstein in der Historie der TschechoslowakeI

Author(s): Otakar Petrik / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1989

The document discusses the history of Czechoslovakia, highlighting its establishment post-World War I and its development into a democratic state with a strong industrial and agricultural base. It details the impact of the global economic crisis of the 1930s, the rise of Hitler's power in Germany, and the subsequent threat to European stability and Czechoslovakian statehood. The Munich Agreement of 1938 is described as a betrayal, leading to the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939 and the onset of severe persecution and oppression, including the closure of cultural institutions and forced labor. The document also covers the broader context of World War II, the support of fascist forces in Spain, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, and the eventual turning point in the war with the help of Allied forces, leading to the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945. It concludes with the post-war recovery and the preservation of cultural heritage, including Jewish monuments and children's drawings from Theresienstadt, serving as a reminder to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.

Notes bibliographiques

Author(s): Jan Heřman,Bedřich Nosek,Jiřina Šedinová,Anita Franková,Anna Hyndráková / Language(s): English,French,German Issue: 1/1970

Reviews of: 1. Charles Wengrov: Haggadah and Woodcut. An Introduction to the Passover Haggadah Completed by Gershom Cohen in Prague. Sunday, 26th Teveth 5287 / December 30, 1528. Schulsinger Brothers, New York 1967. Passover Haggadah, Shmuel Mohr, Bene-Beraq, 1988. 2. Shammai Waks: Grief is My Song (Ma trojer lid) Los Angeles, 1966, 104 pages. 3. Růžena Bubeníčkovi, Ludmila Kubátová, Irena Malá: Tábory utrpení a smrti. - The Camps of Suffering and Death, Svoboda, Prague, 1969, 490 pages. 4. Arnold Pauckert: Der jüdische Abwehrkampf gegen Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus in den letzten fahren der Weimarer Republik. Hamburg, Leibniz-Verlag, 1988, 311 S.

Communications

Author(s): Jarmila Škochová / Language(s): English,German Issue: 2/1983

The Exhibition “Struggles and Battles — Art Against Fascism and War“; (Conference report) Review of: Gerhard Schoenberner: Der gelbe Stern. Die Judenverfolgung in Europa 1933—1945. 3. Ausgabe, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt a/M, 1982, 318 S.

Doświadczenie traumy a perspektywa zwierzęca. Wokół opowiadań Lwy Iwana Ptasznikaua i Pies Idy Fink

Author(s): Beata Siwek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2024

The main purpose of the article is to show the traumatic experiences (the Chernobyl tragedy, the Holocaust) from the animal perspective. To achieve this goal, two prose texts have been compared. Although the texts differ in their narrative strategies, both place an animal protagonist in the center. In the stories Lions by the Belarusian prose writer Ivan Ptasznikau and The Dog written by an Israeli writer of Polish origin, Ida Fink, the animal goes through a painful experience that is close to a human one. These texts fall within the context of the so-called posthumanistics, emphasizing the collectivity of the human and animal lives.

The Jewish Museum in Prague - 1999 Annual Report

Author(s): Leo Pavlát / Language(s): English Issue: 1/1999

The Jewish Museum in Prague is actively collecting memories from Holocaust survivors, resistance members, and witnesses. The document lists annotated memoirs, detailing individuals' experiences such as deportation to concentration camps like Auschwitz, involvement in the resistance movement, and post-war lives. Many survivors emigrated, joined armies, or participated in underground activities. The accounts include escapes, internment, and life in mixed marriages during the war. Post-liberation, some individuals moved to countries like Israel or the USA, while others returned to Czechoslovakia or engaged in educational work.

Baltic Nations in Soviet Dissident Literature: The Compromise by Sergei Dovlatov

Author(s): Deniss Hanovs / Language(s): English Issue: 51/2023

The article reflects on the images of the Baltic nations in the novel The Compromise (1981) by Soviet dissident author Sergei Dovlatov. The novel is analyzed within the framework of Baltic post-colonial studies, which are supplemented by the history of Soviet dissident literature of the early 1980s. The narrator, a Soviet journalist, acts in two roles: he is a Soviet subaltern and a dissident author, yet a staff member of a Soviet newspaper, and therefore a colonial tool. The narrator discovers his in-between status when he discovers his colonized status while at the same time his revelation does not produce any change in his image of the Baltic cultures. They, the Baltic nations, remain unknown to the narrator. His fragmented discovery of Estonian and Latvian history and culture leads to no real contact with the groups. Selected chapters of the novel analyzed in this paper suggest that the orientalized Estonians and Latvians remain as silenced groups with stories unknown to the narrator, as the language tools necessary for a dialogue are missing. The narrator also participates in the process of orientalizing the Baltic cultures, as the case of a milkmaid shows.

Cultural Life in the 1960s in the USSR as Reflected in Tout compte fait (1972), the Autobiography of Simone de Beauvoir

Author(s): Solveiga Daugirdaite / Language(s): English Issue: 52/2023

The article aims to discuss cultural life in the USSR in the context of the changing cultural policy in the 1960s as reflected in Simone de Beauvoir’s memoirs. During the period from 1962 to 1966, de Beauvoir was visiting the Soviet Union regularly together with Jean-Paul Sartre, spending several weeks in different parts of the country. Unlike Sartre, she left a written account of the political, economic, and cultural situation in the USSR. De Beauvoir captured the transition from the so-called Thaw to the Stagnation that occurred during that decade. During their first visits, the atmosphere was still rather liberal and a desire to communicate with the West was still present, but soon the persecution of dissidents and the antisemitic trials began. This article emphasizes the importance of autobiographical books in de Beauvoir’s oeuvre, highlighting, on the one hand, the narrator’s accuracy and attention to detail and, on the other hand, her efforts to shape the narrative at will, bypassing uncomfortable aspects (such as tensions in her relationship with Sartre and the real role of some people in their life). De Beauvoir’s most important sources of information were the liberal writers of the time such as Ilya Ehrenburg and Yefim Doroch, as well as translator Lena Zonina and others. De Beauvoir’s sympathy for the Soviet system, like Sartre’s, is still a source of controversy, while her description of the changes in cultural life of the Soviet Union in the 1960s can be a valuable resource for researchers of the Soviet era.

Jüdischer monarchischer Patriotismus im Alten Reich des 18. Jahrhunderts

Author(s): Ivan Parvev / Language(s): German Issue: 1-2/2024

One of the aspects of the history of the Jews in the Holy Roman Empire of the 18th century that has only been rudimentarily researched is the so-called Jewish monarchical patriotism, which I want to be understood as a new-coined scholarly term. In my view the Jewish monarchical patriotism consists of three components. The historically oldest, which can be traced back at least to the 17th century, was the public declaration of loyalty to the monarch. The second component, the joy over victories in war or peace, can be traced back to the 1740s, when rabbis in Berlin, Prague and Vienna began to congratulate rulers on winning battles in their sermons. The third element, the military component, emerged in the late 1780s, when Emperor Joseph II ordered the recruitment of Jewish men in his army. However, not all segments of the Jewish community stood behind such a patriotic stand. On the other hand, many non-Jews perceived the demonstrated monarchical patriotism as “quasi-patriotism” that could only feed anti-Semitic prejudices.

Reconstruction of Fateful Events

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2024

Odbojáři, nebo gangsteři? Příběh ilegální skupiny Pátá kolona

Author(s): Jiří Plachý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2024

The article discusses the controversial history of the Czech resistance group "Pátá kolona" during World War II. Initially formed by Václav Engelmüller and other students in 1939, the group aimed to fight against the Nazi occupation. However, their activities often resembled those of gangsters rather than freedom fighters. They engaged in various criminal acts, including theft and murder, to fund their resistance efforts. The group's moral decline is highlighted by the murder of Jaroslav Sinkule, a member suspected of being a Gestapo informant. Despite their initial resistance efforts, the group's actions eventually drew the attention of the Gestapo, leading to arrests and the group's dissolution. The article also touches on the post-war lives of the surviving members, who faced various fates, including collaboration with the Gestapo to save their lives.

Proti Židům pravdou a činy! Příběh antisemitského týdeníku Arijský boj

Author(s): Tadeáš Hlavinka / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2024

The article discusses the history and impact of the antisemitic weekly magazine Arijský boj during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Launched in May 1940 by Jan Vladimír Břetenář, the magazine was filled with aggressive antisemitic articles and caricatures, promoting Nazi racial policies. It targeted Jews and their supposed allies, calling for their exclusion from public life. The magazine also attacked "white Jews," non-Jews who opposed antisemitism or were indifferent to Nazi ideology. Contributors included notable figures like Bohumír Lain and the Innemann couple, who wrote antisemitic articles and serialized novels. The magazine's content was monitored by the Gestapo and influenced the lives of many individuals. Despite its limited circulation, Arijský boj played a significant role in spreading Nazi propaganda in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.